Two original founders of the NFL’s Rooney Rule told ESPN they agree with commissioner Roger Goodell that the league’s efforts on diversity are bearing fruit, but they say there’s more work to do. One noted an ongoing gap in a key head coach recruiting pool: offensive coordinators.
A recent uptick in challenges to diversity efforts in business and government has added to questions over whether the NFL might back away from the rule, which mandates more assertive action to create advancement opportunities for minority and women coaches and executives.
In his pre-Super Bowl news conference this week in New Orleans, Goodell said the league remained committed to the Rooney Rule, not because it is a “trend” but because it is “the right thing” to promote diversity.
“I think we’ve proven to ourselves that it does make the NFL better,” he told reporters.
Still, the league must keep trying to do better, according to Cyrus Mehri and John Wooten, whose work led to implementation of the Rooney Rule in 2003. Mehri said the ranks of NFL offensive coordinators — a job that is the…
